Page 80 - Importan Chinese Art Christie's May 2018

* 18
A YELLOW-GROUND FAMILLE ROSE TIBETAN-STYLE VASE,
BENBAPING
QIANLONG SIX-CHARACTER SEAL MARK IN IRON-RED AND OF THE
PERIOD (1736-95)
清乾隆 黃地粉彩蓮托八吉祥紋賁巴瓶 礬紅六字篆書款
The body is of slightly compressed spherical shape, surmounted by a futed
domed neck and drum-shaped top, brightly enamelled with the Eight Buddhist
Emblems, bajixiang, alternating with stylised lotus blooms on a lemon-yellow
ground. The colourful decoration to the neck imitates a Tibetan banner,
below the top with forets enclosed by fower scrolls. The interior and base are
enamelled in turquoise.
10¿ in. (25.7 cm.) high
£30,000–50,000 $43,000–70,000
€35,000–57,000

PROVENANCE:
Christie's Hong Kong, 28 November 2006, lot 1618A
來源:
香港佳士得2006年11月28日拍賣, 拍品1618A

This rare form of altar vase, known as benbaping in Chinese, was made to
contain Sacred Plants for rituals associated with Lamaist Buddhism, and
is related to ewers used to contain Sacred Water for ritual washing. The
ewers share with the vases the same globular body and drum-like upper
section, but with the addition of a spout emanating from a dragons's mouth.
An example of this type of ewer is illustrated by R. Kerr in Chinese Ceramics
- Porcelain of the Qing Dynasty 1644-1911, Victoria and Albert Museum Far
Eastern Series, London, 1986, p. 115, no. 101. The form of the current vase
is even more closely related to the gold Bum-pa urn which contained the
ivory plaques used to confrm the identity of boys who were the reincarnated
Grand Lamas (see Treasures from Snow Mountains - Gems of Tibetan Cultural
Relics, Shanghai Museum, 2001, p. 50, no. 4).
The colourful banding seen on the neck of the current vase and the green
ground example in the Shanghai Museum has been painted to resemble
the multi-coloured silk banners, often hung in cylindrical form, in Buddhist
temples. Examples can be seen in the Hall of Long Life of the Potala
illustrated in The Potala, Encyclopedia of China Publishing House, Beijing,
1995, p. 52, no. 11.

(mark)

78 Other fees apply in addition to the hammer price – see Section D of our Conditions of Sale at the back of this Catalogue